Broadcasting media has traditionally been the preferred approach for distributing content to an audience. There are many means for distributing content, such as radio, television and cable systems, as well as physical and digital delivery systems for printed media such as newspapers and magazines. One defining trait of traditional broadcasting is that the audience (alternatively listeners, viewers, readers, etc.) play a passive role. The audience may have only indirect effect on the actual content that is delivered, for example using ratings and identifying the size of the audience. Typically, the owners of a distribution channel select content according to their interpretation of the collective preferences of their target audience. The selected content is then distributed to the user with the hope that their needs and preferences are satisfied.
Similarly, in the case of digital and over the air music radio stations, many stations adopt a musical style (e.g., country-western, blues, rock, electronic), and exclusively play music corresponding to that style. Often it is the user who must seek out the radio station that fits their tastes. Presently, there are numerous web content delivery services emphasizing music delivery to users according to their music styles and tastes. One feature available is a system wherein users select songs and the system then finds a number of other songs that sound similar to those selected. These songs, however, are specified, or found through search engines that find songs by genre or a pre-assigned description (e.g., heavy metal, country, etc.). The algorithms for finding similar music are narrow in scope and often linear in nature, playing songs with ensembles of musicians that share a common musician between them or focus on a single genre. The recommendations do not venture outside a small or limited scope and do not offer much more variety than the method of tuning into a standard over the air radio, directed toward a specific genre of music. More often than not, users of these music services enjoy music across multiple genres, or would actually enjoy music from several genres having differing arrays of compositions, that the user may enjoy but are unaware that they exist.